The level of hypocrisy that surrounds the moral storm swirling over John Terry’s head has reached an all time high. When the minister for sport Gerry Sutcliffe called for Terry’s removal as England captain one had to blink twice at the sheer audacity of an MP lecturing a footballer about morality.
It has got nothing to do with his ability to lead England at the World Cup in South Africa but according to Sutcliffe he needs to lead by example. MPs show everyone how to behave by acting with such impropriety, it makes your eyes water. The expenses scandal of last year which exposed a huge swathe of ridiculous and unjustifiable claims is not exactly a model of how to run a clean and fair democratic system.
Then of course we have those fine upholders of truth and decency the newspapers who have hounded Terry over his obligation to resign after this dastardly and despicable act. It is a truth universally acknowledged that not one brave reporter or fine, upstanding newspaper executive has ever cheated on his wife. And then there was Gary Lineker making snide comments on Match of The Day about Terry “playing away” when his own fidelity record is not exactly pure as the driven snow.
These boys know how to conduct themselves alright and that Terry is a cad. Indeed they are so convinced of the moral high ground that they have been waving hundreds of thousands of pounds to get his mistress to tell the unvarnished truth. Thank God for the fearless journalists who are so nobly bringing the truth to a front page near you.
Nobody can defend the central defender’s actions and it must be heart-rending for the victims in this imbroglio, Wayne Bridge and Mrs T. It must be especially hard to accept as this is being splashed across the pages of newspapers up and down the country but the truth must out.
It would seem hard to outdo the cant that so many have been involved with but someone got pretty close on the 5 Live 606 phone-in on Saturday night. A Liverpool fan phoned to register her moral outrage at the actions of the English captain. The very minimum that was required, she argued, was that Terry should not be able to wear the captain’s armband for his country ever again.
So this harpie must have thought that when her beloved club captain Stephen Gerrard was seen on cctv punching a man repeatedly in the face, that this was conduct acceptable in a man of authority. True, Gerrard was acquitted but the evidence of the assault was still there for all to see and the legal niceties of provocation and circumstance do not disguise a cowardly and vicious assault.
Clearly, in this woman’s eyes, it is just fine and dandy compared to a spot of infidelity. The concern is that so many people side with her and the country’s moral compass is spinning wildly out of control. What is worst is the attitude of the media and the establishment.
